larousse wrote:If not, links to other such sites offering advice about safety in Japan would be widely appreciated.

like http://www.gaijinpot.com/bb/ ?
I would like TJP to stay at is it now. I don't feel the need to talk in a language study oriented site about these things. They will just spawn endless rants I'm not interested in reading.

keatonatron wrote:I think it's important to remind people that there are dangerous places and situations no matter where you go in the world. For most of this thread we have been saying that Japan is quite safe compared to other countries, but it would be bad for people to think there are no dangers at all.

I think Coco's post is relevant, and I think starting a new thread about the incident would just upset people (in its own thread it would make Japan look too scary! Here, it contrasts the nice things we said about Japan to show that dangers still exist).

I agree with keatonatron. Even though Japan's safer than other countries, there are still doinks around, and it's important to still be careful of these doinks. And I also hope that the sick doink who murdered that English teacher will get caught and suitably punished. Actually, I would use a word stronger than "doink" to describe him, but this is a family-friendly board... :p

Last edited by doinkies on Thu 03.29.2007 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

meh, i don't know which side to take.... in the past month i've read about some random gaijin who got into an altercation with a taxi driver, and turned himself in the next day and spent the next 30 or so days in jail, with no charges, and no contact with the outside world. yes, in Japan you can be in jail for a month with no charges brought against you while they try to squeeze out your confession. japan is not high on the U.N. list of acceptable practices regarding being under arrest. they could yank you off the street and keep you behind bars for a month just for the fun of it....

on the other hand, some other article i read was some guy who never locked his bicycle at the train station for months and months. then one day his bike is gone! OMG! then the cops call him a couple of days later and they caught the theif. they even took the theif back to the scene of the crime and made him point ot the place where he stole the bicycle. and they check the story with the bicycle owner.... the owner then tells about leaving his cell phone in a public park overnight.... when he remembers, he goes back to the park and *presto*, his cell phone is still sitting there on the same park bench. (never in U.S.).

there is a distinction here, between petty criminal activity and truly psychotic activity. the psychotic is world-wide human condition type of thing. a person who will abduct and kill you... makes no difference what laws or punishment apply. the person is crazy.

but for the rest, all that i've read makes Japan safe. loose your wallet, no problem. forget your briefcase on the train, no problem. the simple crimes of say the U.S., Japan doesn't have, at least not enough to be close to thinking "unsafe". the psycho-crimes... country doesn't matter, crazy people are crazy people.

i live in Los Angeles area, but in a neiboring town. my town was recently noticed as the safest "large city" area in the U.S., i have noticed, no bars on the windows, and i accidentally left my patio door open for months and i leave my bedroom window open, no worries. maybe it's just the area, my area is alot of Armenian and Russian people. even though there are gang people around, i feel totally safe at all times where i live. but i've also lived in South Central L.A. where i wound not recommend going out after dark alone... especially if you are female....

so i tend to see things in a sorta gangster type of way.... if you are not Yakuza, do not worry, they have no interest in you. there is always the psyco element, psyco people are psycho people the world around, avoid them. otherwise, from what i've read, Japnan is in the realm of "don't worry about the petty stuff that you worry about in the rest of the world.". you can leave your bicycle unlocked and not really worry about somebody stealing it, you can leave your wallet/cellphone somewhere and go back and it will be there, or the neighborhood cops will have it. you can walk around at 2am and not be afraid....

but there are still psycho people everywhere that you need to watch out for....

I know that comparing places doesn't really means much but, in Italy leaving your bike not locked means only that you will not find it later. Maybe in very small cities is not so but in a normal city I would say 99%.
I heard that in some cities in Japan they don't lock their homes. That's for me is unbelievable.

I think that crime is proportional to unemployment.
And massive immigration or a poor economy results in many people without job (foreigners and not).

Txkun wrote:And massive immigration or a poor economy results in many people without job (foreigners and not).

I agree totally. This has happened in my city. My parents say that back in their days they left the houses unlocked, everything was safe... Then, the massive immigration from other parts of the country happened and there was a very quick and unsubstainable growth of population, and crime. It's not that the "foreigners" were criminals, but in general the city's economy got worse because of the high unemployment rate and everything.

-----

Anyway, I think I'm already "trained" well enough from walking alone at night on the streets of my city. You know, the usual tactics like looking over your shoulder every ten seconds, crossing to the other side if there's someone who looks suspicious, avoiding the dark, wearing clothes that allow you to run quickly...

I don't think I would have many problems in Japan, where it's definitely a thousand times safer. I wonder if someone in Japan looking over their shoulders constantly would seem paranoid.

A while back there was a news story about city-owned metal furnishings disappearing in Tokyo. Apparently companies in China were sending freight ships to Japan and buying up scrap metal no-questions-asked, and a bunch of (Chinese?) people were grabbing manhole covers, sign posts, drainage grates, railings, and just about anything that wasn't literally bolted down.

It'd be ironic if China invaded Tokyo with tanks made out of... Tokyo.

Same here : there is a world-wide shortage of metal, mainly thanks to
China's growth : so, the metal "covers" to the city sewers were stolen everywhere in France, which happens to be dangerous : when the hole is open, people tend to fall into it. So, some small cities are going bankrupt while replacing them, and they are bolted down now.

As for safety and foreigners... it is a question widely debated in France in a time of presidential elections, and quite often there is no link made between economic situation and criminality... which would spoil some of the politicians' positions.
Therefore, I won't comment on that!

Just enough to say two things :
life is quite different accordingly to where one is living, either in central Paris or in the suburbs; or whether you take th eunderground or not.
most of the voters seduced by the equation "crime = foreigners" live in quite small, sometimes rural, and mostly crimefree areas.